The Warwick
Historical Society and the Neversink Valley Museum of History and
Innovation Present
A Joint Fundraiser:
1st Annual Orange County Silent Film Festival
$10,
Adult, $5 under 12, per session, 4 sessions (Proceeds to benefit the two organizations)
Selections
curated and introduced by Neversink Valley Museum of History and Innovation and
Neversink Valley Institute of Early Film Studies Directors Seth Goldman and
Gretchen Weerheim
Sunday, July 29, Session I,
1-3PM
Seth Goldman introduces films by D.W.Griffith shot in Cuddebackville.
The
Haunted Castle (1896)
Frankenstein
(1910)
Sunday, July 29,
Session II, 4-6PM
Dr.
Jekyll and Mr.Hyde (1912)
The
Midnight Girl (1925)
Mon., July 30, Session III,
Matinee, 12-2 PM, Session IV, Evening, 7-9PM
Introductions by Gretchen Weerheim
Mon., July 30, Session III, 12-2PM:
The
Enchanted Drawing (1900)
Delivering
Newspapers (1903)
Fantasmagorie
(1908)
Little
Nemo (1911)
Gertie
the Dinosaur (1914)
A
Boy and His Elephant (1913)
Our
Gang Short (1920s)
Felix
the Cat (1920s)
Mon., Session IV, 7-9PM
A
Trip to the Moon (1902)
The
Bat (1926)
Piano
music accompaniment
Where:
A.W. Buckbee Center, 2 Colonial Ave., Warwick, NY
Visit:
historicwarwickny.blogspot.com
All
donations are fully tax-deductible under IRS rule 501 (c )(3)
The
Neversink Valley Museum of History and Innovation and its Institute for Early
Film Studies (26
Hoag Road, Cuddebackville,
NY 12729) celebrates the contributions of
such Hollywood legends as D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Lillian and Dorothy
Gish, Mack Sennett, Florence Lawrence amongst others, who came to Orange County
in the early years of the 20th Century to create films. Seth Goldman is the
Executive Director of both the museum and institute, and Gretchen Weerheim is
the museum educator and assistant director of the institute.
D.W. Griffith shot seventeen films in
Cuddebackville: “I discovered Cuddebackville, the most beautiful, altogether
the loveliest spot in America…there is a quality about the light there,
particularly a twilight that I have never found elsewhere; it is transcendently
illuminative for moving pictures.” A number of early motion picture companies
and pioneers came to Cuddebackville to take advantage of the scenery and light,
including the aforementioned and Cecil B. deMille, the Thanhouser Company and
Pathe Freres and notable stars of the era Mabel Normand, James Kirkwood, James
Young Deer and others.
The festival is also in homage to Warwick’s own
cinema palace, the Oakland Theatre, which served the community as a location
for vaudeville, opera, music, and movies from the silent era until the 1970s.
“For many the Oakland Theatre was the site of both their first movie and their first date; I, for one, savor memories of B horror movies starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee I saw during the last years of the theatre's existence. Recently, I acquired a World War I era poster advertizing a concert for the "Permanent Blind Relief War Fund For Soldiers and Sailors at the Oakland Theatre", which exemplifies the integral civic role these early opera houses and cinema palaces played in communities like Warwick and others in addition to providing a public space for "movie going", a seemingly rarer occasion these days.
We want to contribute to bringing a little bit more of that back from the past at the A.W. Buckbee Center," said Dr. Robert Schmick, executive director of the Historical Society.
Movie Summaries
Horror Movies
Le
Manior du Diable
(The Haunted Castle)
Released: December 24, 1896, Paris,
France
Directed and Written: Georges
Melies
Studio: Star-Film
Run Time: 3:00
Featuring: Georges Melies, Jeanne
d’Alcy
A
large bat flies into a medieval castle, circling and flapping its wings before
suddenly changing into Mephistopheles (Georges Melies). He prepares a bubbling cauldron that produces
symbols of evil: skeletons, witches, ghosts before one of the summoned
underworld cavaliers holds up a crucifix, sending Mephistopheles back to Hell
in a puff of smoke.
This
early film uses traditional pantomime elements seen in stage productions,
common for the time. The action takes place on a basic set with camera tricks
to give the illusions of appearance and disappearance.
This
film initially was meant to amuse, not frighten, but is considered by many
scholars to be the first horror film.
Frankenstein
( Released: March 18, 1910)
Directed and Written: J. Searle
Dawley
Studio: Edison Manufacturing
Company, Bronx, NY
Run Time: 16 minutes
Featuring: Charles Stanton Ogle
(The monster), Augustus Phillips (Frankenstein), Mary Fuller (Dr.
Frankenstein’s Bride).
Frankenstein,
a young student, bids farewell to his father and fiancée as he leaves to enter
college to study the sciences. He becomes absorbed in the mysteries of life and
death and resolves to create a human being. His grand experiment results in the
creation of a hideous monster. which frightens Frankenstein.
The experiment
takes a great toll on Frankenstein’s health and he returns home. The monster
follows him home and reveals his presence, insanely jealous of anyone else who
may be in Frankenstein’s life. Terrorized, a scuffle ensues wherein
Frankenstein casts the monster to the floor, who sees his reflection for the
first time in a mirror. The monster is appalled by his reflected image and
leaves, only to eventually return on Frankenstein’s wedding day.
Still, the
monster believes his only place is beside his creator and goes into the bride’s
room to find the cause of his jealousy. She rushes out and faints at
Frankenstein’s feet. Eventually, Frankenstein’s own power of good over evil
rids the home of his horrific creation and Frankenstein and his bride embrace.
Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
(Released: January 16, 1912)
Director: Lucius Henderson
Writer: R.L.Stevenson (book);
Thomas Russell Sullivan (screenplay)
Studio: Thanhauser Company, New
Rochelle, NY
Run Time: 11:31
Featuring: James Cruze (Jekyll
& Hyde), Harry Benham (Hyde, some scenes), Florence La Badie (Jekyll’s
sweetheart), Marie Eline (Little Girl knocked down by Hyde), Jane Gall (extra),
Marguerite Snow (extra).
Dr.
Jekyll has secretly locked himself in his laboratory, taking a drug of his own
creation. One it takes effect, he slumps in his chair, only to awaken as his
evil alter ego. Mr. Hyde. A hideous beast, after using the drug repeatedly, Dr.
Jekyll can no longer control Mr. Hyde’s emergence, who goes on to commit evil.
Mr. Hyde discovers that the antidote is finished, and he will remain his evil
personality forever. A policeman breaks down Dr. Jekyll’s door to find the
doctor dead after taking poison.
The
Midnight Girl
Released: February 15, 1925
Director: Wilfred Noy Writer: Jean
Conover, Wilfred Noy, with the story by Garrett Fort
Studio: Chadwick Pictures
Corporation
Run Time: 61 minutes
Featuring: Bela Lugosi (Nicholas
Harmon), Lila Lee (Anna Meridoff), Gareth Hughes (Don Harmon), Ruby Blaine
(Natalie Schuyler), Dolores Cassanelli (Mimi Divito), John D. Walsh (Victor
Delski), William Harvey (Nifty Louis). Sidney Paxton (Joe the Café Owner),
Signor N. Salerno (Opera Manager), Flora Finch (Landlady)
A
melodrama thriller wherein a wealthy patron of music, Nicholas Harmon possesses
a weakness for his mistress Nina whose operatic voice is in decline. He
searches for a new talent to perhaps take her place. Meanwhile, Nicholas’ son
Don, an orchestra conductor and unhappily engaged to a society girl, has a
falling out with his wealthy father and leaves to prove himself. Stumbling upon
an elderly music teacher and student who find themselves in a distressing
situation, Don rescues the pair and invites them to meet his father, Nicholas,
who instantly becomes attracted to the younger girl. Don also hires Anna in his
night club, and she becomes the Midnight Girl, and much melodrama ensues.
This
melodrama thriller might be pretty predictable, but it shows Bela Lugosi in
alternative to the role as Dracula he would be typecast in most of his career.
Lili Lee actually had top billing for the film, as she was one of Hollywood’s
biggest stars in the 1920s.
Children’s
Movies:
The
Enchanted Drawing
Released; November 16, 1900
Studio: Vitagraph Studios/ Edison
Studios
Run Time: 2 minutes
Featuring: J. Stuart Blackton
This
short features a combination of animation and live action showing a man drawing
a cartoon face on an easel. First he draws a hat on the head, then a bottle,
then more. The cartoon man seems to have a life of his own and reacts to
whatever the artist draws and does.
Our
Gang Short
Released: 1920s
Run Time: Various, 10-15 minutes
Short
to be named. These are the classic shorts that eventually became known as the Little Rascals when sound took over in
the 1930s. They are timeless and need little explanation!
Felix
the Cat
Released: 1920s
Run Time: Various, 5-7 minutes
Delivering
Newspapers
Released: 1903
Created: American Mutoscope and
Biograph Company
Run Time: 56 seconds (will show
twice)
Very
short film that shows newspaper boys gathering up their copies of the New
York World to sell and a fight breaks out at the end. Takes place in New
York City, most likely Union Square. It presents a glimpse at early twentieth
urban life and childhood for some.
Fantasmagorie
Released: August 17, 1908
Created: Emile Cohl
Studio: Societe des Etablissements
L. Gaumont
Run time: 1 minute, 20 seconds
Meant
to recreate a chalk figure on a blackboard, this animation shows a variety of
objects morphing from one object to another. The main characters are a clown
and a man and are drawn by a man’s hand on camera.
The
title is a reference to the fantasmograph,
a mid 19th-century variant of the magic lantern that projected images
on walls for audiences to enjoy.
Little
Nemo
Released: April 8, 1911
Created: Windsor McCay and James S.
Blackton
Run Time: 10:34
Featuring: Windsor McCay
Windsor
McKay tells his friends that he will create an animated film using 4000 pages
of drawings. The film shows how he goes about the process, albeit comically.
The last two minutes of the film are the Little Nemo animation. It is
remarkable for its beauty as well as each of the hand painted 4000 cells.
Gertie
the Dinosaur
Released: September 14, 1914
Created: Windsor McKay
Run Time: 12:00
Featuring: Windsor McKay, George
McManus, Roy McCardell, Max Fleischer
Windsor
McKay interacts with Gertie, a brontosaurus, who does tricks on command. When
she misbehaves, McKay scolds her and she cries. McKay and Gertie ride off
together at the end of the cartoon.
This
is the first cartoon to feature a character with a personality and was the
first to use key frame animation, or drawing that defines the starting and
ending points of transition. McKay also drew each frame himself, on individual
6.5” x 8.5” sheets of rice paper, and hired John A. Fitzsimmons to draw the
backgrounds.
A
Boy and His Elephant
Released: 1913
Directed: Louise Feuillade
Run Time: 9:17
A
little boy steals a little elephant from a band of gypsies and together they
have a series of misadventures. Charming French film that anyone could enjoy
and is reminiscent of Our Gang features.
Sci-Fi/Mystery Movies:
A
Trip to the Moon (La Voyage dans la lune)
Released: September 1, 1902, France
Directed and Written: Georges
Melies
Studio: Gaston Melies Films
Run time: 11:18
Featuring: Georges Melies, Jeanne
d’Alcy
Color
Version: Six astronomers agree to build a space capsule in the shape of a
bullet, put it in a cannon and shoot it to the moon. Landing safely, the
astronomers have all sorts of adventures but make it home to tell the tale at a
great celebration. The color version was thought to be lost but one was
discovered in 1993 in a near decomposed state. A hand frame-by-frame
restoration was launched in 1999 and completed in 2010.
The Bat
Released: March 14, 1926
Produced,
Directed and Written: Roland West
Run
Time: 85:36
Studio: United Artists
Featuring:
George Beranger (Gideon Bell), Charles Hartzinger (Cortleigh Fleming), Emilyu
Fitzroy (Cornelia Van Gorder), Louise Fazenda (Lizzie Allen), Arthur Housman
(Richard Flemming), Robert McKim (Dr. Wells), Jack Pickford (Brooks Bailey),
Jewel Carmen (Dale Ogden), Kamiyama Sôjin (Billy the Butler), Tullio Carminati
(Detective Moletti), Eddie Gribbon (Detective Anderson), Lee Shumway (The
Unknown)
A
silent film based upon the Broadway Play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery
Hopwood. The Bat, a masked criminal,
terrorizes a mansion filled with the guests of a mystery writer. This mansion has hidden within it $20,000 of
stolen money. The guests, along with a
detective, search for the clues to the identity of The Bat.
Interestingly,
this film was remade twice: Roland West
remade the film with sound in 1930 and released it as The Bat Whispers with Chester Morris and Una Merkilin 1958 with
Vincent Price and this is also the film where Bob Kane got the inspiration for
the comic superhero “Batman”; there is a
bat-signal used in the film to frighten the guests before the attacks. Jack Pickford is also a star in this film and
if his last name sounds familiar, you might think of his older sister Mary,
perhaps one of the most famous film stars of all time.many, the Oakland Theatre was the site of both their first movie and their first date; I, for one, savior memories of B horror movies starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee that I saw during the last years of the Theatre’s existence.
Recently, a World War I era poster came to light advertizing a concert for the “Permanent Blind Relief War Fund For Soldiers and Sailors at the Oakland Theatre”, which exemplifies the integral civic role these early opera houses and cinema palaces played in communities like Warwick and others in addition to providing a public space for a shared movie experience, a seemingly rarer occasion these days.
We want to contribute to bringing a little bit more of that community experience back from the past at the A.W. Buckbee Center,” said Dr. Robert Schmick, Executive Director of the Historical Society.
